Condensed and edited for clarity
Michelle Barclay: Congratulations on being sworn in as the 62nd President of the State Bar of Georgia. Please tell us about your career path.
President Ivy Cadle: My first exposure to the legal profession was through my father, who is an attorney in Swainsboro, Georgia. When I was 15, on a Saturday, he took me to the record room in the old Emanuel County Courthouse to teach me how to abstract a title. Land deeds used to be kept in a vault in huge old books that would be rolled out. At that time, you could still smoke in the courthouse, so that room reeked of old paper and stale cigarettes. We spent the day reviewing these huge old books and scribbling notes—that appeared to me to be hieroglyphics—as I Iearned to abstract a title.
The art of that type of legal work was lost on my 15-year-old self, and I wondered why anyone would do this as a profession. I started to think I might want to have a medical career. I spent the next six years becoming a first responder, an EMT, and then an ambulance driver. I got an associate’s degree in biology followed by an undergraduate degree in biology. But, at some point on that path to medicine, I just lost my passion for it.
My dad had an accounting degree, which influenced me, and I realized that I could get in two more seasons of Georgia football if I pursued a master’s degree in accounting, which I did. I was interested in business, but hadn’t had any real exposure to business, so I enjoyed the opportunity to get an accounting degree. By the time I finished my master’s degree, I had come to see the value of being a legal professional, especially after my many conversations with doctors over the years.
The intersection of business and law very much interested me. I thought about going to law school right away, but I thought that it would help my application if I became a CPA first. I worked at KPMG for almost 2 years to get my CPA license. By that time, my wife and I were living in Atlanta, and she was working for Georgia Public Television.
We were both interested in going to law school, so we decided to apply together. The schools that accepted both of us were Ole Miss and Mercer. We choose Mercer to stay in Georgia as we had our friends and support networks here.
MB: I love that you went to law school with your wife. What led you to become State Bar President?
Ivy Cadle: My interest in the Bar began when I first started practicing law. The people I worked with were active in the Bar, and it was easy for me to see the benefit of being involved. In fact, at my first firm meeting, I was encouraged to run to be a state representative from Macon. If you have a leadership role, it helps the firm justify supporting you and defrays some of the expenses involved in participating. I was in leadership as a young lawyer but was never an officer or on the YLD Executive Committee. However, I did choose opportunities to be of service on projects of interest to me. When I aged out of the YLD, I think I was seen as a person who could be called upon to help. At some point, a seat for Macon was available, and Darrell Sutton called to encourage me to run for that seat. Other people encouraged me to run for seats on the Executive Committee and eventually for the Secretary position, which puts you on the leadership track to become President. I have been blessed to have people in my life who spotted opportunities for me and pointed me toward them. Also, once in those positions, I worked hard to earn those blessings.
MB: How would you describe this moment as you begin your year of service as State Bar President?
Ivy Cadle: The State Bar has 55,000 members with a vast variety of practice areas, backgrounds, opinions, and abilities. Our members are facing a broad mix of issues in society and technology. I’m 46 years old and my entire life has been marked by accelerated, exponential change. I remember going with my dad to Savannah to get his first computer for his office. I used to play games on that computer, but sometimes I had to quit if it was slowing the entire office network. Now, I have addictive games on my cell phone in my pocket. The amount of change and influence that I have experienced and witnessed in my life is so exciting and presents so many amazing opportunities. There will be so many new things coming our way. For example, if we could get some AI solution to better record our time as lawyers, it would free up a lot of law practice frustration. At the same time, change can be terrifying. Lawyers and judges themselves change rapidly. We have a photograph of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 2015 from an event that my wife hosted, and none of those Justices are still there. So, there is an abundance of change and evolution that we have grown up with, but I find it incredibly exciting and engaging.
MB: What are your priorities for the next year?
Ivy Cadle: I think the State Bar is in a good place. Our Executive Director, Damon Elmore, has done a great job. Damon works closely with the entire staff and is really engaged. He is also the kind of leader that does not like credit for himself and always steers credit to individual staff members. Overall, we have really good people, and we have the stability to work on process improvement and evolution. My year will focus on improvements.
Paula Frederick, our wonderful General Counsel, is retiring at the end of January 2025. Russ Willard from the Attorney General’s Office has been named as her replacement, and he has already started so we have a long period of knowledge transfer and transition. I plan to support that big change and to do what I can to make it smooth.
I’m experiencing a career transition myself. In February 2024, I became the new Managing Shareholder for Baker Donelson’s Atlanta office, and I will just naturally do things differently than my predecessor, Gary Barnes. Gary was an excellent manager and I am learning a lot from Gary while putting my own spin on things. Life is always changing and evolving. Ultimately, we will be stronger for it.
At the State Bar this year, we are reviewing internal operating rules to make sure that we continue to do the work of the State Bar of Georgia appropriately. We are looking at various governance questions and making sure that our governance mechanisms are in place to make sure everyone is following policies and doing the needed work.
We have our first Executive Committee meeting coming up where we’ll start in a joint session with the Supreme Court of Georgia. We are going to look at the way we elect Executive Committee members who are at-large members and on the Board of Governors and make sure that rule is clear. These processes start, for me, with soliciting feedback as well as sharing ideas. Collaboration will lead to a stronger product.
MB: Any other objectives that would interest our readers?
Ivy Cadle: We are implementing new CLE rules. This action stems from the Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency. While we are reducing the total number of hours per reporting period, we are increasing the number of ethics and professionalism credits required. Judicial input led to this effort. We heard the judges telling us about poor lawyering or a lack of professionalism in their courtrooms. We are going to try to improve our profession. We want the citizens of Georgia to be served by lawyers who do a good job.
MB: What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
Ivy Cadle: I like to fly airplanes. I like to play golf. And, I like to work on my house and my yard.
